Chapter 611: She Wouldn’t Stop Crying
He covered her hand briefly with his., noticing that she looked exhausted again. "Come on. I’ll get you home. You need rest."
She turned and started towards the door.
Luca followed, then stopped.
Her underwear near the desk caught his eye.
He looked at the fabric on the floor, then towards his wife, who was already halfway to the door.
A smile tugged at his mouth.
Luca bent down and picked it up. "Bambola."
Vee glanced back. "What?"
"Nothing."
Luca folded the underwear once and slipped it into his pocket.
Vee gave him a suspicious look. "Are you coming?"
"Yes, love."
She continued towards the door.
Luca followed a second later, now painfully aware that there was absolutely nothing beneath that dress. He looked at the shape of her ass walking ahead of him.
It was going to be a busy night.
*****
Don Massimo sat in the main living room the next morning, watching Matteo in his high chair. He had been trying to reach Carol.
Nothing.
He had not heard from her since she left the previous day, completely disappointed in him.
The only woman God had ever made for him, and somehow God had also given him a life that could never properly tolerate having that woman in it.
Massimo had long ago accepted that the famiglia would always take something from him. He had chosen it enough times to know the cost.
Still, he wanted to know Carol was all right.
She could not have returned to Singapore. He knew her far too well for that. Carol would not leave New York while Marco’s life was still hanging in the balance.
And she certainly would not leave before getting another opportunity to kill Massimo herself for hurting her son.
So when Luca finally came downstairs for breakfast, looking tired enough to suggest he had slept very little, Massimo did not bother with good morning.
"Have you heard from your mother?"
Luca paused on his way towards the dining area. "Yeah... why?"
"Nothing."
"Just want to know if she is okay."
"No," Luca said. "She is not. She is safe, if that is what you are asking," Luca added. "But okay? No. When I saw her, she wouldn’t stop crying."
Massimo’s face held nothing. He did not give people the satisfaction of visible pain not even his own son.
But Luca knew his father.
He saw the slight tightening in his jaw.
The way his eyes dropped.
"Yeah," Massimo said eventually. "Life is tough for all of us."
Luca frowned. "All of us? What exactly do you have to lose in all of these?"
Marco would lose his wife.
Veronica had to face losing her sister.
Valentina had already destroyed herself.
Carol was devastated.
Luca was inching towards a future he wanted to avoid.
And Massimo sat there acting as though he occupied the same miserable boat as everyone else.
Massimo held his son’s gaze. "I lose your mother again."
Luca went quiet.
Right.
He had not thought about that.
It was easy to forget Massimo loved Carol.
But he did.
He always had.
Luca swallowed.
There was nothing clever to say.
Massimo looked back towards Matteo.
Luca exhaled slowly. "Sacrifices have to be made for happiness."
"Anyway, I’ll be leaving for Italy within the week," Massimo said. "I need everything handled by then."
"She needs more time."
"The more time she gets, the harder it will be for her to do what needs to be done."
Massimo did not even look at him as he said it. Matteo had dropped his toy again, and for what had to be the millionth time that morning, the Don got to his feet, bent down and picked it up.
The feared head of the famiglia had been reduced to personal toy retrieval service for a baby who clearly enjoyed watching him suffer.
Massimo handed it back. "Give Regina a little credit," he continued, returning to his seat. "And stop thinking for her."
Luca gave him a dry look. "Right. You’re the expert on women."
Massimo ignored the jab. He had already lost the only woman whose opinion on the subject might have mattered, so there seemed little point defending himself.
Instead, his attention shifted towards Luca.
"When’s the baby due?"
The sudden change in subject caught Luca slightly off guard.
"In two months."
Massimo nodded as if mentally adding it to some invisible famiglia calendar. "I’d like the christening in Italy. Every member of the famiglia should be there."
His daughter had not even been born and Massimo was already planning her first major mafia gathering. Luca would have argued, then decided against it.
There were bigger things to deal with.
He still had not told his father what he and Vee had discussed the previous night.
First, he needed to make a couple of plans.
He needed to protect his wife from what had to be done.
And for part of what he intended to put in place, he needed his mother. Which meant he had to make a deal with Carol.
Considering her present opinion of Massimo, that might actually be the easiest negotiation Luca had all week.
He glanced towards the stairs. "Vee is still asleep. Could you watch Matteo until she wakes up? I have to get to Commissioned and arrange some things with Bastione."
"Yes, about that. I received a call this morning. News that the Genovese and the Bastiones have called a truce is already circulating in Italy."
Luca sighed internally. "It isn’t a truce."
"That is not what people are saying."
The arrangement with Renato had been temporary and purely useful. Nothing more. Renato had provided Valentina enough rope to hang herself, while Luca had handed him information about the traitor inside his own family.
It did not make them friends.
"Renato and I made one deal," Luca said. "It served a purpose. Now it’s done."
Massimo’s gaze stayed fixed on his son.
Luca knew exactly what the older man was thinking. If Italy believed two powerful enemy families had suddenly settled their differences, people would start wondering what had changed, what was being negotiated and who stood to lose from it.